Day 6 Introduction to Jhanas 1-4 -Keys to Entering the Jhana

Today we will talk about jhanas, but I want to set some context before we talk about it. And I wanted to use this specific passage from the suttas because it's the words of the Buddha. He talks about what you need in order for jhanas to be there, in order for the mind to naturally be in jhanas. So I'm going to read from a sutta called the Samana Phala Sutta. It's Digha Nikaya Sutta No. 2. And the section is from 63 all the way to about 75, 63 to 75. So I'll read this and then explain what's going on. So first of all, the context of this sutta.

There is a king named Ajatasattu who is restless and seeking comfort in some kind of a teaching. And he has his ministers go out looking for that teaching. And they come back to him and they report all of the different ascetics and wanderers that are there at that time. And there are about five or six different ascetics and they all have their different views.

There's Ajita Kesa Kambali, there's Makkali Gosala, there's all these different people who have views regarding materialism, views regarding atomism, views regarding eternalism, views regarding fatalism, asceticism, and other things like that. But then one of the ministers says, there is also this wanderer named Gautama. And he professes this Dhamma. And it would be wise to go and meet with him.

And so Ajatasattu goes to see the Buddha with his ministers. And he asks him, what is it that you actually teach? And so the Buddha goes through what he teaches, and he also goes through what are the benefits of that teaching. So that's why it's called the Samana Phala Sutta. Samana is Shramana. Shramana means a wanderer. That's the Shramanic tradition versus the Brahmanic tradition.

And the Brahmanical tradition is about the priestly duties following the Vedas, doing certain rituals and sacrifices. And the Shramanic traditions are like, for example, Buddhism and Jainism that we see now in their modern way of doing things. But what he's talking about is the fruits of the holy life. That's what it's talking about. And so he says, well, there are these different fruits, and how does one attain to these fruits? And he goes through the process of patipada, which means step by step, what are the ways in which you benefit from this practice?

And so he goes through morality, which we've been talking about for quite a while now, in terms of sila and the precepts, and he talks about the Patimokkha. Which is actually, you know, we think that we're doing eight precepts, you guys are doing eight precepts here. In the Patimokkha there's 227 precepts for the monks and 311 precepts for the nuns. So go figure. If you're a monastic, make sure you do all 227.

Make sure you keep to those precepts. But keeping the five basic precepts in the lay life is of utmost importance. That's the non-negotiable. And then from there, there are eight precepts and ten precepts and so on. So he goes through all of that. Then he says, so he's speaking with the king now. And then, sire, that monk who is perfected in morality sees no danger from any side owing to his being restrained by morality.

Just as a duly anointed kshatriya king, that is a warrior king, having conquered his enemies by that very fact, sees no danger from any side. So the monk or practitioner, on account of his morality, sees no danger anywhere. He experiences the blameless bliss that comes from maintaining that noble morality. In this way, he is said to be perfected in morality.

And how is he a guardian of the sense doors? So this is important to understand here. We don't just jump right into meditation and then go like, okay, now I'm going to get this jhana and that jhana. There is a whole process that you're doing here on retreat. You're learning what it means to be an ethical person, and then you're learning how to navigate through the sense doors.

One guards the sense doors. That word in Pali is called samvara. And sometimes it's translated as restrained. But I think guarding is much better. Being mindful of the senses. What happens with the eyes, the ears, the nose, the tongue, the body, and the mind? Here, on seeing a visible object with the eye, he does not grasp at its major signs or secondary characteristics.

Because greed and sorrow and unskillful states would overwhelm him if he dwelt leaving his eye faculty unguarded. So he practices guarding it. He protects the eye faculty, develops restraint of the eye faculty. On hearing a sound with the ear, on smelling an odor with the nose, on tasting a flavor with the tongue, on feeling an object with the body, on thinking a thought with the mind, he does not grasp at their major signs or secondary characteristics.

He develops restraint and guards those faculties. He experiences within himself the blameless bliss that comes from this noble guarding of the sense faculties. And so in this way he is a guardian of the sense doors. So what does that mean? You're paying attention to the nutriment that you give to the sense bases. Now obviously here on retreat you don't have a lot of nutriment for the sense bases with regards to media, with regards to what's going on on the news, what's going on on your phone, with social media, and so on.

We live in a world today in which our attention, and it always has been the case, our attention is the greatest currency that we have. And the world is around to take that currency away from you. Social media, Instagram, Twitter, the news, reading whatever it is going on about the news, or watching it on television, or even just discussing it. Notice how that creates a certain kind of agitation in the mind, right? Or even, you know, when you're just scrolling aimlessly on Instagram, doom scrolling, as they say. I also do it. But you're just scrolling through it, and what's going on? Your attention is going from one video to the next video and the next video.

And you're spending your currency of attention. And so if you do that for entertainment purposes, that's all well and good. Maybe you limit it to a certain amount of time. Just as when we have kids and we say, you can only watch TV after you've done your chores and so on and so forth. We must now parent ourselves and say, once I get all of these things done, then I can go ahead and maybe spend 20 or 30 minutes on this mindless scrolling. But then you realize it's not worth it.

You find other things that are more meaningful in your life when you start to do it in that way. Now here you are on retreat. You are here in the forest. There is a sound of the birds. You see the hummingbirds. You see bees and squirrels. I don't know if you see squirrels. We don't see a lot of squirrels nowadays, but I have a lot of rabbits down there. If you come to that site, there's at least three or four bunnies hopping around. The deer might come out once in a while, but they haven't shown yet. So there's just beauty everywhere here, with the colorful flowers and the greenery and the grass and the trees.

And here you are, living how we've always lived before, before electronics came into the picture, before technology came into the picture. And this is how they were living their lives back then. Of course, they had other things to do mindlessly, to distract themselves with, but nothing as colorful and as captivating as what we have on our phones and our screens.

You take a person from the time of the Buddha and you bring them here into the 21st century and put them in the middle of Times Square. Just imagine how crazy they're going to be. They'll be up for hours just wondering, what is this, what magic is this? And so the retreat function is to try to bring those conditions in our mind so that we're away from our phones, we're away from all of these things, and we can focus on what truly matters in every moment

And learning how to guard the sense doors. So just taking the phone and electronics away does a whole lot in terms of guarding the sense doors. And when you smile and you have mindfulness, that's a further protection for the sense doors, noticing how your mind is moving in reference to what it is that you're seeing, in reference to what it is you're hearing, in reference to what it is that you're tasting or smelling or feeling with the body or thinking. And how is one accomplished in mindfulness and clear awareness? This is what we've been talking about. Sati sampajanna. He acts with clear awareness in going back and forth, in looking ahead or behind him, in bending and stretching, in wearing his robes, carrying his bowl, in eating, drinking, chewing, swallowing, in evacuating, urinating, in walking, standing, sitting, lying down, in waking, in speaking, and in keeping silent. He acts with clear awareness.

It's not about noting all the time what you're doing. It's about just having your mind present with the bodily activities that you are doing. This is why we talk about smiling with everything that you do. Entering a room, you smile. Leaving a room, you smile. Because a smile helps the mindfulness to come up. Having loving-kindness when you enter a room. Having loving-kindness when you leave a room.

Having loving-kindness with every spoon and morsel of food that you eat. Having loving-kindness while you're waiting in line for the food. Having loving-kindness or whatever the object is. Not only when you're walking, but when you're sitting and you're standing. When you're going for a nap, when you're coming out of your nap. When you're going to the bathroom, when you're leaving the bathroom.

So meditation is not restricted just to sitting in a chair or on a cushion. This is what we have, that book, what is it? Life is meditation, meditation is life. That's what Bhante would always say. And that means that everything that you do can have a meditative quality to it. That is what true mindfulness is, to see where your mind's attention is in relation to all activities.

And the clear comprehension is knowing what your mind is doing as you're doing whatever activity it is. Is it staying in the present with the activity or is it going somewhere else? This often happens when you're driving a car. You go from point A to point B and you don't realize how you got there. Because your mind is on autopilot, it's in the default mode network, it's thinking about this or that, thinking about the future, thinking about the past, thinking about yourself, thinking about this or that, the other.

But what we're doing here with the practice of consciously, intentionally bringing awareness of what we're doing in every activity with a feeling of loving kindness, with the object their meditation. That is retraining the mind. That is part of the meditation. That is an important part of the practice. And how is one contented? Here he is satisfied with a robe to protect the body, with arms to satisfy his stomach. Like, having accepted sufficient, he goes on in his way. Just as a bird with wings flies hither and thither, burdened by nothing but its wings, so he is satisfied.

There's nothing for you to worry about here in terms of your food and other things. It's all taken care of. Right? So all you have to be concerned about is, am I getting enough? And am I being protected by my clothes? That's the whole point of clothing, to protect you from the wind, from the cold, from the heat, from bugs, from flies.

You have a cabin. You can sit here protected with the ceiling and the walls, protected from whatever might be out there in terms of snakes and reptiles and creepy and crawly things. This is what it is said in the Sutta. This is what is mentioned. To be content with what is happening here right now. To be contented with the things that are present right here, right now. As best as possible.

Then, being equipped with this noble morality, with his noble restraint of the senses, and his noble contentment, He finds a solitary lodging at the root of a forest tree, in a mountain cave or gorge, in a charnel ground, in a jungle thicket, or in the open air on a heap of straw or Dhammasukha meditation center. Then, having eaten after his return from alms round, he sits down, holding his body erect, and collects his mind on keeping mindfulness established before him. Oftentimes, when we eat our food and we sit down, we're not meditating, we're napping.

It is a bit challenging to meditate after a meal. But the idea here is for the monks, they only had that one meal, maybe twice in a day, right before the noon. So you find what works for you. So you find your meditation schedule. Maybe you like to meditate early in the morning after the precepts are given.

And you might meditate for an hour or two hours or three hours. Or you might find that it's better to meditate after the Dhamma talk. And so you find a good chunk of time then. Or maybe after your interview. So you find what works for your schedule. Like we've already said, the food will be laid out for you, will be kept aside if you're meditating past the lunchtime. And so he establishes mindfulness before him. What does that mean?

So what do we do when we sit down? We sit down, we're conscious of our body, we're aware of our body in the chair or on the cushion. We go through any points through the body to relax, any tightness and tension. So we're coming back to the present. We put a smile on our face, bringing up mindfulness. And then we start to come into the meditation.

Now, here he says, and this is really the main points that I want to bring up here, because to see the value of what happens when the mind is free of the hindrances. Abandoning sensual desires, he dwells with the mind freed from sensual desires and his mind is purified of them. Abandoning ill will and hatred and by compassion and loving kindness for the welfare of all living beings, his mind is purified of ill will and hatred.

Abandoning sloth and torpor and perceiving light, mindful and clearly aware. His mind is purified of sloth and torpor. So here he says, perceiving light. Some people do experience light in their mind. But here it's really meditating out in sunlight, meditating where it's bright. If you meditate in darkness, your mind gets groggy. Your mind will start to sleep. The idea is to meditate at a time where there is enough light so that you don't get into that space. And as I've said, there are other ways to deal with sloth and torpor. Taking a nap, washing your face with cold water, right? Whatever it might be.

Abandoning restlessness and remorse. And with an inwardly calmed mind his heart is purified of restlessness and remorse. Abandoning doubt, he dwells with doubt left behind, without uncertainty as to what things are wholesome and what things are unwholesome. His mind is purified of doubt. So he has discernment. He knows what is wholesome and what is unwholesome. Now these analogies really hone in on what we're seeing in terms of the hindrance and the relief from the hindrance.

Just as a man who had taken a loan to develop his business, and whose business has prospered, might pay off his old debts, and with what was left over could support his family, he might think, before this I developed my business by borrowing, but now it has prospered, and he would rejoice and be glad about that. Just as a man who was ill, suffering, terribly sick, with no appetite and weak in body, might after a time recover and regain his appetite and bodily strength and he might think before this I was ill and now I am well and he would rejoice and be glad about that just as a man might be bound in prison and after a time he might be freed from his bondage without any loss with no deduction from his possessions

he might think before this I was in prison but now I am free and he would rejoice and be glad about that. Just as a man might be a slave, not his own master, dependent on another, unable to go where he liked, and after some time he might be free from slavery, able to go where he liked, might think, before this I was a slave, now I am free, and he would rejoice and be glad about that.

Just as a man laden with goods and wealth might go on a long journey through the desert, where food was scarce and danger abounded. And after a time, he would get through the desert and arrive safe and sound at the edge of a village. You might think, before this, I was in danger. Now I feel safe at the edge of this village.

And he would rejoice and be glad about that. So he's using very interesting analogies here where hindrances are like bondage. Hindrances are keeping the mind in a prison. Hindrances cause the mind to be disturbed. But just as you experience freedom, just as you pay that last payment on your loan, how do you feel? You feel relief. If a person has been ill, when I was about 16 or 17, I had a very strong bout of hepatitis and jaundiced liver and a swollen spleen. It started off with malaria, which is terrible, very bad.

Headaches, shivering, shaking, just delirium, just really bad. And then taken to the hospital, stayed in the hospital for months. Became like a skeleton. I couldn't really eat a lot of food because my body wasn't really taking it. So maybe some little soggy bread with water and some clear soup or something. Mostly a lot of IV fluids.

And that went on for weeks and weeks and weeks. And it was a very interesting thing because I was in the general ward, so there were other people there. The man who was lying down in front of me, he died. He passed away. You know, I saw all kinds of things while I was there. But the day that the doctor said, are you ready to leave today?

Was such a great day. And I had to convalesce when I came back home. Gather my strength. So that was a whole other ordeal. And then by the time that was fine, you know, I felt much better. I felt a lot of strength. Somebody who goes to prison, they're away from their family, away from their friends, have to follow whatever is being said by the prison rules.

And they have to live there for months or years sometimes. And then finally the day comes when you can get out, you're free. How does that person feel? Their relief, new life. This sounds pretty dramatic, but really the experience of being free from disturbances in the mind, it is amazing to have that mind that is silent, that is quiet, that is in gladness and joy. And that's what the Buddha points out here. He says, As long as one does not perceive the disappearance of the five hindrances in the mind,

he feels as if in debt, in sickness, in bondage, in slavery, on a desert journey. But when he perceives the disappearance of the five hindrances in himself, It is as if he were freed from debt, from sickness, from bonds, from slavery, from the perils of the desert. And when he knows that these five hindrances have left him, gladness arises in him. So gladness here is pamojja, or pramoda in Sanskrit, and that really means relief.

It's a different kind of joy. It's a joy of relief when you let go of all tension and all disturbances in the mind. From gladness comes delight. So that is the joy that comes in the mind, the piti. We're going to get into the jhanas soon. From delight in his mind, his body is tranquil. The bodily formations are relaxed. There's tranquility. Pasambhaya or Pasadi. With a tranquil body, he feels joy.

And in this case, when he says joy, because that's the translation, we're talking about sukha, ease, both in the mind and the body. And with ease, his mind is collected. That is the beginning of Samadhi. That is the beginning of the jhanas. And you need all of these steps if you want to enter into the noble jhanas, the jhanas that are as professed by the Buddha.

The jhanas that are liberating, the jhanas that are filled with liberating insight. So today we'll go over the four jhanas. In reality, there are only four jhanas. A lot of people talk about the eight jhanas or, there's the form jhanas and the formless jhanas. But actually there are just the four jhanas and then from the fourth jhana are what are known as ayatanas.

We'll get into that when we talk about that. But what is jhana? What do we mean by the word jhana? J-H-A-N-A. J-H-A-N-A. So jhana comes from the Sanskrit dhyana. When you say dhyan. Now in India they will say dhyanrako in Hindi, which means be careful, or place your attention here, be more attentive here. So jhanas are the collecting of the attention on an object. It's to place the attention on an object and stay with that object over a period of time without any dysregulation in the mind.

There may be thoughts in the background, there may be these kinds of images and concepts and ideas floating by in the mind, but there is a magnetic quality of the mind's attention on the object. It is orbiting the mind. And so what does the Buddha say? He says, secluded from sensual pleasures, or quite secluded from sensual pleasures and secluded from unwholesome states, his mind enters the first jhana, which is accompanied by thinking and examining thought, and joy born of seclusion, comfort and ease, and a unified mind. These are the factors of the jhana. First, what is it you need to be secluded?

Or quite secluded from sensual pleasures. Find a place that is quiet, find a place that is peaceful. So here we have the dhamma hall, or in your cabin, or in the gazebo, or outside if it's not too hot, on one of the benches that are around the campus. And so you sit and you close your eyes. Now, when you close your eyes, much of your sensual pleasures disappears, because mostly we are taking things in from our eyes.

And so we're quite secluded from sensual pleasures. And we start to bring our mind towards an object. We start to place our mind on an object. Secluded from unwholesome states, that means the mind has let go of the hindrances. There is no disturbance in the mind. Secluded from unwholesome states, his mind enters the first jhana, which is accompanied by thinking and examining thought. Vitakka and vichara. What is vitakka? Vitakka is usually translated as thinking. But vitakka is the intentionalizing of bringing up an object.

Like verbalizing words of, may I be happy, may I be well, may I be free of suffering. Or bringing up an image, bringing up a memory, bringing up something that uplifts the mind. And so the mind gets uplifted and goes into loving-kindness. And then there is a slight effort to keep the mind steady. There's no push.

There's just a resting in the feeling of loving-kindness. This is the examining thought. This is the vichara. Vitakka is to place the mind on an object. Vichara is to stay with that object. And as you stay with that object, what happens is piti arises, piti or priti, which is translated as joy or bliss, but it is a different kind of joy and bliss. It is a joy born of seclusion, a joy born of letting go.

When the mind experiences relief from the hindrances, that joy naturally arises. We are not here fabricating the joy. We're not here trying to construct it. We're here welcoming the joy when it arises. We're here observing when the joy arises. And there is a sense of ease in the body. A sense of comfort. In the Yoga Sutras, it says that asana, meaning your posture, is any posture that is sthira and sukha, that is stable and comfortable.

So there is comfort in the body. Some of the Christmas carols that we hear, they say comfort and joy, comfort and joy. That's what they're talking about. Piti and sukha, piti and sukha. That's what we experience in the first jhana. And there is something called ekagata, the unified mind. Now, the analogy I like to use when it comes to the unified mind is like your satellite that orbits the earth.

If the satellite is too close to the earth, the gravitational pull of the earth will bring it down. If it's too far away, it will start to veer off. And so we need a balance of a unified mind. If we're too concentrated, we are at the risk of becoming suppressed in our mind. Everything is pushed down. If we become too focused, we have that absorption.

If we're too loose with the mind's attention, then we experience a mind that just goes helter-skelter, here and there. So the right balance of staying with the object. How do you know if you're pushing? You will feel tension. You will feel a certain kind of heaviness. How do you know if you're not making the right effort? Your mind will go in different directions.

So once you have the clarity to be in that unified space, the unification of the mind, where it's staying with the object, even if there are thoughts in the background, that's enough. It's only when you're distracted, you six are and you come back. And so you're here for a while, and after a while, the mind drops the thinking and examining thought. Now, I want to be very precise here. Does that mean all thoughts cease?

No, what it means is the intentionality of bringing up an object ceases. The effort to stay with the object ceases. And now what remains is the other factors, along with something known as self-confidence. Now the joy that was born from seclusion turns into joy born from collectedness. There is enough collectedness around the object that the joy sustains for a while. And the ease in the body deepens.

And there's self-confidence, meaning, ah, I'm getting the hang of this. This is making a lot more sense to me. And so the attention flows smoothly. It's like you're on autopilot with the object of meditation. And, of course, there's further deepening of the unification of the mind, of ekagata. And so you might be in the second jhana for a while, and usually you will know that you're in the second jhana primarily from the fact that you're no longer having to bring up the object over and over again. The object is sustained by your attention for a while, for quite a while.

And the joy that may arise doesn't necessarily need to be exuberant. It's not like fireworks will happen. It's not like there will be this amazing, magnificent bliss. There is just a quality of the mind being uplifted. There is a sense of, the mind is happy. The mind is content. The mind has ease. And so as we progress from the second jhana into the third jhana, what ceases is the piti, is the joy.

This is what I'm talking about. Don't chase after bliss, because you're going to be stuck in the first jhana or you're going to be stuck in the second jhana. The bliss is overrated for that reason. There is better. The bliss transitions into the third jhana, which has what? Still has comfort in the body. Still has ease in the mind. Has tranquility.

Has deep collectedness. Here, the mind is very tranquil, and it is at ease. And so in the suttas, it says, and this is what the noble ones say, his mind is content and tranquil, right? So it's a very nice, sustainable place to be in. And really, you might experience a certain kind of lightness in the body, maybe a lightness or groundedness, where the body feels very grounded to the earth, or to the chair, or to the cushion, or whatever.

It's not a heaviness of the mind, it's just the body feels very steady. Or there's a lightness there. Here the loving-kindness may feel like it's starting to be more expansive. It starts to move. And so contentment and tranquility are the key factors in this third jhana, and from that third jhana you move into the fourth. After a while, at this point, your mind is unwavering. Your mind is very steady. The signature of the fourth jhana is called purity of mindfulness due to equanimity. And so here it's interesting, in the suttas it says, with the disappearance

of the previous factors, doesn't mean that the mind or the body aren't experiencing ease anymore. It just means that the mind doesn't care anymore. It's transcending the dualities of pain and pleasure, of pleasantness and unpleasantness. And so when we say purity of mindfulness due to equanimity, what are we talking about? Remember when I brought up the enlightenment factors, I said that there is, in a sense, a linear process where the mindfulness leads to discernment.

The discernment leads to energy. Energy leads to joy. Joy leads to tranquility. Tranquility leads to samadhi, or collectedness. And that samadhi, or collectedness, leads to equanimity. But as you progress through the practice, they feed into each other. Primarily, the equanimity strengthens the next arising of mindfulness, making it steadier, making it more unwavering. And there's a further discernment, a sharpness, a clarity to the mind.

And from that sharpness and clarity, that discernment, that dhamma vicaya, there is ease in your energy. The joy that's there isn't this flickering flame. It's a steadiness. And more than the joy, there is a very steady, stable tranquility. And now the collectedness is deep in the fourth jhana. And obviously there's equanimity. So oftentimes when people are in the fourth jhana, they will be feeling like loving-kindness, the energy, the feeling, the warmth, maybe has dissipated.

But that's not what's happening. You're no longer starting to feel in the body. The loving-kindness has moved up into the head. It becomes more expansive. Sometimes it feels like loving-kindness is suffused through the body, from the top of the head to the tips of your toes. Sometimes it feels like not only is loving-kindness up in the head, but it feels like it wants to expand out more. It wants to radiate out more.

These are some of the signs that you'll see. But also the deep equanimity. And so that kind of, I wouldn't say it overpowers, but it's more observable in this particular state. And so how does that equanimity translate in your daily life? Here on retreat, everything feels smoother. Everything feels slower, in a good way. You're not so bothered by things anymore.

It's almost like you're floating around. And there's a certain kind of relaxed nature to your voice and to your speech and to your action and to everything that's going on. There's a certain level of ease in everything. You feel content. You feel satisfied. So these are the four jhanas. First jhana, you start with bringing up an object. You're secluded from unwholesome states. You're away from the disquietude of the world. You have joy born of seclusion.

You have ease in the body. You have a unified mind. Second jhana, you no longer have to keep bringing up the object. Your mind stays with the object, almost automatic. The joy deepens, comfort deepens, the unification of the mind deepens. Third jhana, the joy disappears but there is further tranquility, further collectedness. The body may feel lighter, the body may be grounded, there may be a feeling of more expansion, spaciousness, or the beginning of that. And in the fourth jhana, your mind has pure mindfulness, deep equanimity, unbothered by what's going on, whether it's painful or pleasurable. And then from there are the ayatanas, but we will talk about that the next day. There's a lot there when it comes to the ayatanas. But these are the four jhanas.